Comments on: "Cunningham Pier Geelong" (6)

Love your story, Sandra! Footie cliques can be awful!
We lived in the country, and all five of my boys normally played soccer . One season the eldest two decided to try rugby league for a change – I think the glamour called. But after two weekends, they decided soccer was much better after all. The parents there didn’t shriek at the boys, telling them them to “kill” their opponents and yelling obscenities at the other coach or the ref.
The boys and the parents at soccer were were much more friendly and accepting. My (then) husband and I were very happy with the boys’ decision (and pleased we’d allowed them the opportunity to make it).
We were glad to leave the other code alone to create its bullies and misogynists of the future, while our boys learned to work in a team and to consider others.

Love your story too, Sandra. My boys were never interested in sports so I never had to endure the kind of problems you describe. We have, however, been ‘new in town’ at least twice. The first time was our arrival in Australia back in 1974. Luckily were were soon settled and were lucky to find we had friendly neighbors and the boys soon had lots of friends running in and out. Our second experience of being ‘new in town’ was when hubby and I decided yo escape the escalating heat of Adelaide and move to the cooler climes of Devonport in Tasmania. Thanks to my love pf writing I was delighted to discover lots of likeminded people in town and we founded the Mersey Writers’ Group. If ever you are in town, don’t feel left out, drop in and visit us. We meet on the second and fourth Fridays of each month at 3.00 pm in the Devonport Linc meeting room.

Lovely story! I enjoyed it very much, particularly since I tend to be shy and have often had these same feelings. This year, my daughter decided to play basketball, and I was so nervous about going to the games. She played with our church group, but most of the girls on her team went to school together, which meant all those families already knew each other. Luckily, the other moms were pretty friendly and welcoming.